The Mon Valley is a "community" of thirty-two political sub- divisions spread out over an area of approximately 100 square miles in the heart of the Pennsylvania Appalachian Mountain Range. It is composed of portions of three counties-Fayette, Washington, and Westmoreland, which converge at a point along the Monongahela River southwest of the City of Pittsburgh. History, legislative restrictions related to arbitrary county boundaries, unavailable public transportation to the three county seats which are equidistantly located twenty-five miles from the Valley, and the commonality of interests due to proximity have forced the residents of these villages, boroughs, towns, small cities, townships, farm hamlets and coal "camps" to unite into a self-dependent entity--the Mon Valley. This once wealthy industrial center is an area of inconsistencies-- beautiful, green valleys sheltered by barren hillsides, prosperous steel-producing plants adjacent to partially dismantled and abandoned mills, innumerable churches surrounded by ethnic clubs and public bars, and open farmland interspersed with developing suburban sprawl. Physically, the topography is likewise inconsistent in that it varies from riverside flatlands to steep mountainsides with abundant patches of forest to gently-rolling plains. The definitiveness of the Mon Valley trade area evolved out of the isolation discussed above and the long-time recognition by the overlapping sub-divisions for the need to interdependently seek resolution to their common problems. This cooperative association over the years, accompanied by the development of a Valley-wide public transportation and inter-connecting highway system, tended to weld those many separate units into a single Mon Valley "community" which became inter-twined socially, politically, culturally and economically. To meet the needs of the "community," two hospitals, Monongahela Memorial and Charleroi-Monessen, came into existence and were followed by other Mon Valley ventures--Mon Valley United Fund; Mon Valley Progress Council (an industry-supported organization primarily concerned with economic development); Mon Valley United Health and Welfare Agency, Mon Valley Community Health Center, and The Mon Valley Area Vocational High School.